When in the packing industry individual or coherent, wholly or partly finished packing containers are filled, in particular with liquid contents, a filling pipe is generally used, which, among other things prevent splashing during the filling procedure, and is lowered wholly or partly into the packing container. When the filling has been completed a valve situated at the lower end of the filling pipe is closed so that the flow of contents is interrupted, and the filling pipe and the packing container respectively are displaced in relation to each other so that the filled packing container can be removed and a new packing container can be made ready for filling. In the well-known type of packing machines which manufacture packing containers from flexible tubular material, this procedure corresponds to a transverse seal being carried out at some distance below the bottom end of the filling pipe, whereupon the subsequent package begins.
When a packing container has been filled with the desired volume of contents and had been displaced in relation to the filling pipe, some form of processing operation generally takes place, e.g. in that the top part of the package is formed and closed or the tubular packing material is sealed transversely. It is of greatest importance here that the flow of contents from the filling pipe is truly effectively interrupted so that no contents drip down and hinder the sealing work or soil the outside of the package or surrounding machine parts. On filling of powdery material, this is generally no problem, but when the contents consist of liquid material, especially such of high viscosity or liquid materials containing particles, there is a danger of the material or the particles sticking to the bottom end of the filling pipe e.g. on the outside of the valve located there, and after the closing of the valve drip down from the filling pipe.